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One tweet proves the value of the right to remain silent and why you use it.


The 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution grants to everyone the right to remain silent and the right against self-incrimination.

In other words, you can legally decline to cooperate with police and you do not have to give answers that help the police put you in jail. You just say, "I have nothing to say. I want my lawyer."

Every good lawyer tells every client not to talk to police. Why? Because what you say can and will hurt you. I always say "the truth won't set you free, silence will."

Why? Because everything you say can -- and absolutely will -- be used against you in court.

The value of right to remain silent is easily seen in this tweet from President Donald Trump from August 5, 2018.

"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics..." Do you see that? That's a confession to violating federal law. It's illegal for campaigns to meet with foreign nationals who are giving anything of value about the election. Information about an opponent is something of value.

The Act and Commission regulations of the Federal Elections Commission include a broad prohibition on foreign national activity in connection with elections in the United States. 52 U.S.C. § 30121 and generally, 11 CFR 110.20.

In general, foreign nationals are prohibited from the following activities:

Making any contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or making any expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement in connection with any federal, state or local election in the United States;

Making any contribution or donation to any committee or organization of any national, state, district, or local political party (including donations to a party non-federal account or office building account);

Making any disbursement for an electioneering communication;

Making any donation to a presidential inaugural committee.

So, what the president did right there is admit publicly that his campaign advisers -- Donald Trump, Jr., Paul Manafort, and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner -- broke the law and did so on his behalf.

So, Trump's tweet is a self-incriminating statement, and, further, it's an admission that his campaign met with foreign nationals from Russia about the campaign.

This tweet is admissible as evidence, a statement against interest, and as such is a confession to a criminal act. Even though Trump says, "I did not know about it," to avoid his own blame, in saying this he does not water down the implication against his senior advisers.

All of this proves the value of remaining silent when confronted by the police. In trying to blow off the notion that the Trump campaign's meeting with Russia wasn't illegal, Trump has tacitly tweeted the most damning confession he could possibly make.

(Required by Alabama law: No representation is made that the quality of legal services is greater than other lawyers.)


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